Top Democrat on Benghazi Committee Says Investigation Became Political: Family of Victims Let Down

The top-ranking Democrat on the House Benghazi committee has stated that the investigation has become political and is a sad disappointment to the families of the deceased.

“I think it’s a sad day for all of us because we made a commitment to the families. The families came in with tears in their eyes literally and said, ‘Please do not make this a political football.’ That’s exactly what’s happened,” said Representative Elijah Cummings (D) to CBS. “They said, ‘Find out more information about what did happen,’ and then they asked us to do one other thing and that is try to make sure you figure out how this does not happen again and I think we failed at all three.”

Cummings argues that Republican Trey Gowdy’s argument is a lie. Gowdy contends that the investigation has uncovered important information and fellow Republicans who claim that it was political are wrong and don’t know what they are talking about.

“He keeps saying, ‘Don’t listen to what they said, they don’t know anything.’ Well, we were on the committee, too,” said Cummings. “We know what’s been going on. And listen to this: He has not yet interviewed the head of the C.I.A., but he brought in [former Clinton aide Huma] Abedin. He has not yet interviewed the head of Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of Defense, none of that.”

“When he talks about these 50 witnesses, we still have been zeroed in on Hillary Clinton and there is absolutely no doubt about that and it’s very unfortunate,” said Cummings.

Richard Eskow is host and managing editor of The Zero Hour, a weekly radio program produced by We Act Radio. He was the senior writer and editor for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. Richard has written for a number of print and online publications, was a founding contributor to the Huffington Post, and is a longtime activist. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Campaign for America’s Future.